When Stanaway won in Monaco

Now a Supercars star and Bathurst winner, Richie Stanaway won on the world stage on iconic streets of Monaco, which are hosting Grand Prix action this weekend.

Monaco comes alive once a year for Formula 1 action, with Formula 2 and Formula 3 also on the billing at motorsport’s most glamorous event.

It was in 2015 where a young Stanaway, then chasing his open-wheel dream, broke through and won in Monaco, which in any category, is no mean feat.

However, Stanaway made it look easy with a lights-to-flag victory in the GP2 sprint race at Monaco, in what was a dramatic and entertaining affair.

The New Zealander, now leading Penrite Racing’s charge alongside countryman Matt Payne, started from the outside of the front row, but motored past pole-sitter Raffaele Marciello away from the lights.

From there, Stanaway was untroubled with Marciello — now a GT3 ace for Team WRT BMW — second ahead of future F1 driver Sergey Sirotkin.

As is often the case in Monaco, there was congestion on the opening lap, which led to multiple incidents and retirements.

Down the order, Zoel Amberg collided with former Monaco GP2 winner Johnny Cecotto Jr and found the wall. Rio Haryanto and Norman Nato also collided, leading to a Virtual Safety Car.

On the restart, Stanaway pushed away from Marciello, and led by three seconds at the midway point. There was more drama to come, with current Alpine F1 star Pierre Gasly hit by former British Formula 3 champion Jordan King into the chicane.

It did little to deter Stanaway, who won the Sochi sprint race later in the year before shifting to the FIA World Endurance Championship with Aston Martin and then, Supercars.

The road to Monaco victory began in 2014 when he joined Status Grand Prix for the GP3 season, finishing third on debut in Barcelona before sealing passage into GP2 for 2015.

"Probably wasn't really rocking up to be a favourite to win a championship or whatever, and then we got on the podium in the feature race in the first [2014] round,” he told Supercars.com before the Australian Grand Prix.

"And we were second in the championship the whole way through the year until the last round. Then off the back of that season ended up in GP2, which was also pretty last minute.

"We won Monaco, that's pretty cool. Pretty cool to win there, only one step below F1. You feel so close, but at the same time it's so far away from F1.

“We're pitted right outside the Ferrari garages, and you're putting your helmet on and Sebastian Vettel's car right there.”

The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 14-16. Tickets for the event are on sale now.